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(CNN) – The results are in. In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, the House weighs in on the stimulus. CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash takes a look as the president's economic plans are put to the test.

Plus: Watch CNN's Wolf Blitzer break down the numbers as the House votes roll in.

And: Republicans are balking at President Obama's economic stimulus package, but one GOP member is particularly miffed, calling the plan a "trojan horse" that liberals are using to turn the United States into France. CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider has the details, and explains why Republicans are going back to the basics.

Plus: President Jimmy Carter took a lot of hits for the way he handled economic hard times during his time spent in the Oval Office. Now he's telling President Obama to learn from his mistakes. CNN's Wolf Blitzer sits down for a candid one-on-one interview with the former president.

(CNN) –- Even if they disagreed on the stimulus bill, President Obama and a dozen bipartisan members of Congress can agree on the post-vote agenda: the group will raise their glasses at the first cocktail party in the new president’s White House on Wednesday night.

The president and first lady were slated to host a reception for the leaders from both houses of Congress and their spouses this evening, after the House voted on Obama’s $819 billion economic stimulus package. The cocktail reception is scheduled to start around 7 pm.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The House of Representatives Wednesday passed President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, sending the $819 billion bill to the Senate, where it will face more opposition from Republicans. The vote was mostly along party lines.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Wednesday to send the nomination of retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the nation's chief intelligence officer to the full Senate for consideration.

By a unanimous vote, the committee gave its approval to President Barack Obama's choice to be the next director of national intelligence. The Senate is expected to confirm Blair before the end of the week.

"As our next director of national intelligence, he will ensure this country continues to play offense against the terrorists that threaten our way of life," said Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the committee's ranking Republican.

Blair is a retired four-star admiral who served 34 years in the Navy and ran the military's Pacific Command. He is credited with overseeing successful counterterrorism operations in the Philippines during that time.

(CNN) –- President Obama will take his first foreign trip as commander in chief to Canada next month, his press secretary announced Wednesday.

“Canada is a vitally important ally and the president looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbor to the north,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during Wednesday’s press briefing.

Obama will head to Canada on February 19. Gibbs did not announce any further details about the president’s itinerary.

Former President Bush took his first international trip to Mexico, but many U.S. presidents have started their terms with a visit to Canada.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The nation was evenly divided during the bitterly fought 2000 campaign, but the election night map was not: Viewers saw a sea of red flooding most of the country, with blue states ringing the coasts.

Two cycles later, an analysis of a year’s worth of polling data released Wednesday suggests a far different electoral landscape, and a shift more dramatic than even the Democrats’ solid 2008 showing might suggest: an ocean of blue surrounding a shrinking red island in the center of the nation.

The Democrats currently hold a 255 to 178 advantage in the House, with two seats the Democrats won in November now vacant.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The 111th Congress is just a few weeks old, but both parties are already planning their fight for the 112th — and a new national poll suggests Democrats may have the upper hand.

Forty-six percent of those questioned in a Diageo/Hotline survey released Wednesday say they would support the generic Democrat in the 2010 elections for the House of Representatives, with 22 percent backing the generic Republican candidate. That's a 24 point lead for Democratic congressional candidates in the so called "generic ballot" question, which asks voters their preference for the U.S. House without naming the candidates running in each district.

These results are in line with a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted two weeks ago that found that 56 percent of those questioned think the country would be better off if Congress was controlled by Democrats. That 25 points higher than the 31 percent who said the nation would be better off if Republicans controlled Congress.

DC residents are used to derision from chillier quarters of the country over their city’s occasional paralysis in the face of winter weather. After a few inches of snow and some early morning sleet in the first half of the week resulted in a wave of Washington-area shutdowns, the city’s most famous Midwestern transplant couldn’t resist a dig or two at his new hometown’s expense.

"My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," President Obama told a group of business leaders visiting the White House Wednesday.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he said, adding that his daughter Sasha observed that schoolchildren there would even have recess outdoors.

The president joked that he would have to instill some “flinty Chicago toughness” into his neighbors. "When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things.”

That lesson may have to wait for the next winter storm: after a late-day wave of precipitation, DC's forecast for tomorrow is sunny, with highs in the upper 30s.